Preview

Always an artist who has known precisely the power of his words, it's disappointing that lately Morrissey has enjoyed more notoriety for what he says in interviews than what he says in his music. Until very recently, after all, he had returned from critical exile. His perceived godfather status to a new, literate wave of British guitar bands began his renaissance in 2004, and since then, it's this heritage status to which one pays homage. A forthcoming greatest hits LP reflects this, geared as it is towards his stodgier, more commercially successful recent work, but it's hard not to regret the change in him. Formerly the voice of misunderstood youth, Morrissey now, it seems, is too easy to understand.

· Roundhouse, NW1, Mon 21 to Jan 27

Seasick Steve London

At a time when most people are thinking about making comebacks, Seasick Steve - Mississippi-born musician Steve Wold - is in the novel position of making it for the first time. Made on the road, born out of hard luck - it's hard to tell whether these are more appropriate as descriptions of Seasick Steve's life, or his music. Like Woody Guthrie, for many years, Steve was a train-hopping hobo and migrant worker, along the way picking up a bizarre array of acquaintances - he knew Kurt Cobain, for example - and all of these experiences have helped to inform his songs. These mesmerically droning blues tunes, which are played on a range of mangled, improvised and customised instruments, have lately found a larger audience through the unlikely patronage of Jools Holland. After playing his Hootenanny show in 2006, Steve's fortunes took a dramatic upturn. So, in happier times, he's on the road again, starting a short UK tour this week.

· Astoria, WC2, Thu 24

The Mae Shi On tour

The Mae Shi are like watching a rock band, but on fast forward. The band's debut UK LP, Hlllyh, rushes at you - all heavy guitars, dance beats, and theatrical vocals - in cartoonish fashion. If it sounds hectic in principle, it's no less so in practice. From Los Angeles, the band have been around since 2002, six years they have filled with chaotic creativity. Not everyone will be able to take the pace - those who do risk a genuine art attack.

In the nicest possible way, Explosions In The Sky have nothing to say. Whereas some atmospheric bands, such as Sigur Rós, run to a bit of occasional Elvish incantation to lighten the load of their weighty musings, this Texan band - like their inspirations, Mogwai and Dirty Three - express themselves solely through the means of instrumental music. In this, the band are decidedly in the second wave of "post-rock" bands, but have, nonetheless, found a great deal more success than their - to be honest, rather more original - forebears. Undoubtedly creators of highly emotional music, their work has duly found a home on the no less emotional - and highly-rated - US TV show Friday Night Lights, where the fortunes of a local football team are chronicled to their wordless, occasionally Coldplay-style tunes. Chins locked in earnest musical adventure, the band bring a similar intensity live.